Moab 2016
 

Myself and some friends, 6 rigs total, went to Moab for a week to check out the last couple days of EJS and to do some wheeling. We got to Moab late Thursday night, checked into our house and had just enough time to drink some beer and get our gear unloaded. Friday we walked to the vendor show at the arena, talked to a bunch of manufactures, checked out new stuff and grabbed some swag. Our house was in the neighborhood right next to the arena so it was easy to get beer refills and for bathroom breaks. Later in the afternoon we drove into town to check out the concept jeeps and over to Potato Salad Hill to check out some redneck shenanigans. They didn't disappoint. Right as we pull up there is a full size chev. getting loaded onto a trailer right at the bottom of the hill, some joker tries to go up right next to them and flops over and rolls onto the Chev and the trailer of the truck getting loaded. Dented the shit out of the trailer fender and nearly onto the guy who owned the tow rig. I would have been furious, nope, they hi fived and laughed. Rednecks.......

Saturday was our first wheeling day. We ran Strike Ravine out to Area BFE. I had two goals for this trip 1)to spend some time in Area BFE and 2) to run Pritchett. We followed Strike Ravine to the bottom of Helldorado. A few of us ran through the Gatekeeper, the other two went around and we all made our way up Minor Threat.
The traditional Gatekeeper pose
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Jason
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Jason got a little too vertical for too long and killed every insect in a 100 mile radius.
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Josh
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Jeremy
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After running up Minor Threat we turned onto Greenday. With the optional lines, Greenday turned out to be a lot of fun. My wife jumped into the drivers seat for one of the obstacles. She did a great job I just didn't quite have her on the right line and she got a little hung up. Ended up having to winch her sideways to get her off the passenger door and to get the passenger front tire out of the hole it was stuck in.
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Jeremy showing us the right way up this obstacle.
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This was a nasty climb at the top of Greenday. A stare step ledge with sand all over it. Made for good entertainment. We sat here and watched quite a few rigs try after Jeremy showed them how it was done.
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Once back to the house. There was a lot of this going on.
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Sunday we decided to let our wives drive. They didn't want to do anything too challenging so we ran Tower Arch trail and Willow Springs Road. This trail starts way in the back of Arches National Park so it has some really pretty scenary. The two trails combined are about 25 miles but it is mostly sand and small rock ledges. We spent most of the trail in 2wd. My wife had me cracking up as every sand section she'd stand on the gas and yell "king of the hammers bitches!!!" as we go flying around sandy berms and soft washouts. She has in her mind now that I need to build her an Ultra4 rig. LOL!
Tower Arch.
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Hiked to the Arch and played around on the rocks.
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Monday we had reservations to go zip lining at 3:00 so we chose to run Cliffhanger Trail in the morning. That is a fun trail. We didn't get to run the whole trail as we ran out of time, but we at least got to the narrow ledge next to the 400 ft cliff. Dropped down it, turned around and went back up.
Nate dropping down the first set of ledges right off the road. This trail doesn't waste any time getting started.
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Nate dropping down the second obstacle. Getting a little air under the rear tire.
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The third drop.
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Jeremy stretching his legs a little.
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Little Moab bump just after the creek crossing.
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Josh with a bigger moab bump.
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Hamm getting his lean on.
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Just dropped down the narrow ledge. This was the farthest we got on Cliffhanger.
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Jeremy coming back up. What a view. Add's a little pucker factor knowing there is a huge cliff over there.
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Making our way back up the first ledges we dropped down. Josh spinnin' the tires with the v8.
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Our plan for our last two days was to run Pritchett Tuesday and run Kane Creek and Flat Iron Mesa on Wednesday. Well we woke up Tuesday morning and it was pouring ass rain. I was super disappointed cause I didn't want to run Pritchett in the rain. I wanted to run it how it's supposed to be run. I didn't want to take the easy line or pull cable just because it was slick... so we decided to flip flop days. We figured since its raining, lets run a trail that we have to cross a creek a thousand times. So we did. We ran Kane Creek Tuesday instead. We didn't have the camera out for most of the day. It was raining and nasty pretty much all day. We did get to Hamburger Hill and the rain turned to snow. That was fun, the nastiest hill on the whole trail so lets add snow. It was awesome.
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This is the last climb out of the river bed.
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Wednesday morning I woke up hoping for a dry day and sure enough. No clouds in the sky and cold as shit. Sweet. We're running Pritchett Canyon. I have been waiting for this day since we were in Moab in 2014. We ran out of time and didn't run this trail and with the weather this trip I didn't know if I would again. Our group thinned down to only three of us today. We made our way to the entrance, paid our $3 and away we went.
First major obstacle, Chewy Hill.
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Next major obstacle was Rocker Knocker. There were a number of "play areas", rocks, bolders, etc among the trail but we didn't bother stopping to take pics.
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Jeremy tried the straight up hill approach but he just couldn't get enough traction once it landed. The dirt was still pretty damp from yesterdays rain and the rock wasn't very sticky. He made 6-10 valient attempts though it was a lot of fun to watch.
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He finally caved and went the traditional route.
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While we were at rocker knocker the sun was out, it was warm and we were all wearing t-shirts. Less then 30 minutes later the clouds rolled in and it was beginning to snow again. WTF?!
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The snow didn't last but it was just enough to make axle hill soaking wet.
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Son of rock pile.
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Rock pile. He made a couple small attempts trying to find the right line but on his last "look" he hit his tie rod coming back down and it blew the joint apart. We hammered it back together but it was enough for him to not take any more attempts.
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Last major obstacle was Yellow Hill. After a little burnout on the hill to warm the tires up we were able to crawl right up.
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On top of the hill with Pritchett Canyon in the rearview. Man I love that trail. Has to be my new favorite trail.
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Of course, anytime you leave either Behind the Rocks or Pritchett Canyon we have to stop at the sand dunes.

Great recap/pics Mark. Sorry we missed you there. Pritchett was my favorite as well. :thumbsup:

Great pics and story about your epic adventure. We were there for the week of EJS and pictures does not truly depict the beauty of the area. Loved Kane Creek and Flat Iron Mesa which are both trails on my to do list again.

Awesome trip report and pics as usual!!!! Super stoked you guys ran Pritchett, wish I didn't have to leave early!

Epic post thanks for sharing!

Great pics and writeup Mark. Glad I found them here.

awesome pics mark! need to make next year happen for sure, looks like alot fun out there